Tech, TV, Movies, Games, and More

Special Halloween Event Features the Voice Talents of Disney Channel Star Ross Lynch

Los Angeles, CA—September 20, 2013 – Marvel’s Ultimate Spider-Man makes its Disney Channel debut in a special one-hour Halloween event, Saturday, October 5 at 9pm/8c. This brand new prime time animation special features a never-before-seen team-up with Blade, the fan favorite vampire hunter; Jack Russell aka Werewolf by Night; The Living Mummy; Frankenstein’s Monster and Man-Thing. United together in animation for the first time, Spider-Man and his monstrous allies take on one of the biggest Halloween villains of all time, Dracula!

This landmark Marvel event also features a star-studded voice cast, including Disney Channel star Ross Lynch (Austin & Ally, Teen Beach Movie) as Jack Russell; Terry Crews (The Expendables) as Blade; and Oded Fehr (The Mummy) as The Living Mummy.

“This is the biggest event in Ultimate Spider-Man history,” said Jeph Loeb, Marvel’s Head of Television. “We’ve brought Spidey together with our greatest Supernatural heroes and some of the hottest names to voice them. We’re hoping families turn down the lights and turn up the volume for our spookiest special yet, courtesy of Ultimate Spider-Man!”

The episode will re-air the following week within the weekly Marvel Universe block on Disney XD, on Sunday, October 13at 11am/10c.

Fans can get a sneak peek at part one of the one-hour Halloween special with free download on iTunes beginning Monday, September 30.

Last night filesharing site Megaupload was taken offline by the US Justice Department. Despite being based in Hong Kong with owners who reside in New Zealand it was a US agency that took the site down. Immediately, all files stored on Megaupload were offline, property of the US Justice Department, and unavailable to all the site’s users. All files, both legal and not.

I believe that when future generations look back at internet laws, this will be “the shot heard ’round the world”. Much like when Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand was killed this will be the key moment in the US Government’s attempts to police the entire internet.

With the recent hullabaloo around the US Congress SOPA and PIPA laws it has often been said that such legislation will have a chilling effect on innovation. This will have a negative impact on job growth in the technology sector in a time when the US needs new jobs the most. It turns out the government didn’t need SOPA or PIPA to have that impact, as the takedown of Megaupload will strike at the heart of innovation.

I have been a user of Megaupload as well as other similar services such as Rapidshare. I have used these for the sites’ intended legal purposes–the sharing of files too large for e-mail. On the podcasts I produce a single show can be upwards of 4GB, enough to crash even the heartiest of mail servers. When doing video production the files are larger still. These services provided a cheap and legal way for me to collaborate with my partners across the globe.

But when the Justice Department shut down Megaupload all files were immediately taken offline. For the Justice Department this was the intended effect as all illegal files hosted on the site were removed. However, many users who used the sites legally lost their files as well. These users may have used the sites for collaboration on large files as I did, or as their personal “cloud” backup source. No matter the use, the files are likely gone forever.

This will undoubtedly have an immediate chilling effect on technological progression. Thanks to the advent of HD video, lossless audio, eBooks, high resolution digital cameras, and every other digital device used on a daily basis, the need to store and back-up large files grows. As portability of data becomes paramount with the use of tablet computers, the internet seemed the perfect solution. Referred to as “the cloud” internet storage seemed the perfect solution for the growing need for files to be available and portable. Users choosing the online solution Google Docs instead of the disk-based Microsoft Office is one example of cloud migration. Another is offered by Amazon.com who, on their cloud drive landing page, state that if you put your files on their drive you need “Never worry about losing your files again“.

Now we know that is not true.

Megaupload, like Amazon’s cloud drive, allowed users to upload their files for backup. These can be any files, be it the novel they worked on in their spare time, the pictures of their trip to the beach, or a pirated movie downloaded illegally. Because the US Department of Justice felt too many illegal movies were stored on Megaupload the site was taken down. This takedown had extra hurdles due to the international nature of the site. What would be the effect if the Justice Department felt Amazon, a US based company, had users uploading files illegally and sharing passwords to get them?

I had personally been looking at cloud storage solutions. As my shows take several gigabytes of data each, I have terrabytes of data that I need backed up in case of a lightning strike, disk failure, or home fire. The cloud backup seemed the perfect solution, but now I don’t feel as safe. Files stored on the cloud anywhere in the world can go away at any time through the over-reaching actions of the US Government.

If I feel this way as an individual user, surely businesses looking at cloud storage would take this as a lesson as well This single action will have a chilling effect on cloud storage solutions across the board and, as such, growth in that sector of the tech market will slow. The more the US Government embarks on these global raids at the behest of the Hollywood corporations’ lobbyists the worse the impact will be.

With the takedown of Megaupload the next step to an internet policed by the US Government at the behest of Hollywood corporations has been taken. If the action is allowed to stand, more sites will be targeted and taken down.

I urge you all to again be aware of the unilateral actions of the US Government. As we approach this November’s elections, ask your candidates where they stand on the US role in internet policy. Also, look to see how many Hollywood companies have donated to the election of those candidates. Follow the money to see which candidates will bow to the wills of Hollywood corporations at the expense of free communication everywhere.

Has the takedown of Megaupload shaken your confidence in cloud storage? Let us know in the comments below:

When not podcasting or writing for the Venganza Media Gazette, Arnie Carvalho is a programmer, web designer, and network enginner.

Update: On January 18, 2012 all Venganza Media sites joined thousands of others in going dark to protest the SOPA/PIPA laws. On January 20th the sponsors of SOPA and PIPA withdrew their support, leaving the bills effectively dead in the water.

I applaud all the brave souls who risked revenue and popularity to stand against these bills, but the price of freedom is eternal vigilance. New laws will be proposed, and the US government will continue to stretch the reaches of their jurisdiction as they did with the January 19th, 2012 takedown of Megaupload.

This article was originally written to raise awareness. I am glad people became aware of these bills. Please stay informed.

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing — Edmund Burke

Perhaps you believe those statements to be hyperbole, and perhaps you think that a new internet law won’t really change your internet experience. But if you are reading this article, you are wrong, because if SOPA passes this article may cease to be published. And if you are here, you likely listen to one of the many podcasts I host and produce, and SOPA could end all of them as well.

The key to SOPA is that it allows private companies to order a “takedown” of any web site that infringes on that company’s intellectual property. There would be no due process, no review by any law enforcement agency. The private company, be it a movie studio, RIAA, or any other large firm, would issue a request and by law the following would happen:

Google would be forced to remove all search results to that site.

Google, Amazon, and all other advertisers would be forced to cease business with that site.

Paypal would be forced to halt any payments to the site.

and much more. Worse, once a site has been reported for violating SOPA, it is up to the site’s owners to litigate and prove they did not infringe on any intellectual property.

In short — small sites will be closed by large corporations with large legal teams. Only sites that can afford drawn out litigation will be able to survive.

How does this impact my podcasts and Venganza Media? The language in the bill is exceedingly vague. While we may all agree that the intent behind the bill, to stop the online piracy of movies and music, is a just cause the language in SOPA fails to define what is really infringement. More, without any review, it is conceivable that sites which do not infringe on intellectual property could be shut down and simply not have the financial resources to litigate and bring themselves back online.

Imagine any of the following scenarios:

Star Wars Action News, a podcast I have hosted and produced since 2005, has used Star Wars music and sound effects in its opening and closing (as do many other Star Wars podcasts). This is done with Lucasfilm’s approval, as we have discussed what is and isn’t “fair use” with Steve Sansweet when he was head of Head of Fan Relations for Lucasfilm. However, while Lucasfilm may approve of our use, we could still be entirely shut down. If 20th Century Fox (who distributes the Star Wars films), Time Warner (owners of Cartoon Network which airs the Clone Wars TV Series), Sony or RIAA (who would regulate any use of the music from the Star Wars soundtracks) submitted a claim that our show infringes on their intellectual property, our site swactionnews.com would be shut down immediately.

Now Playing, a podcast we have run since 2007, is devoted to discussing movies. Our use of movie clips and music and movie imagery would be considered fair use in court; however SOPA does not require a trial. If we published a review that a movie studio, production company, or director doesn’t like, they could retaliate by claiming we are infringing on their intellectual property. As the language in SOPA is so vague, the simple discussion of plot details could be considered infringement. Now Playing operates on listener donations through Paypal; donations that would be seized if a single complaint is filed.

Marvelicious Toysis my youngest podcast, started in 2010. It uses original music scored by Joe Harrison, and photos of toys we take ourselves. But again, because the language in SOPA is so vague, even showing a photograph of a toy based on a Marvel comic could be considered intellectual property infringement by The Disney Company or any of it’s various subsidiaries. Again, a single complaint and without any due process our site would be shuttered.

The Venganza Media Gazette, the site which you’re reading right now, has been host to my reviews of the Blade TV series, a review of Duran Duran in concert, as well as a review of Dan Slott’s Spider-Islandcomic event. As articles with images are more visually appealing, we have used publicity shots, photos taken ourselves, or screen shots to enhance these reviews (again, an act covered by fair use). Any of those organizations could claim use of these images is infringement of their property, and the entire site would be shut down.

Worse, we could be shut down through no action of our own. We have forums for our listeners to come and talk about our podcasts. The content in these forums is regulated by volunteer forum administrators, but we are not omnipresent. If a single person, be it a regular user or a spammer, comes and posts a link to pirated content, our entire forum community could be shut down.

We are a very small group of podcasters who operate thanks to a few affiliate sites (very few thanks to IL Governor Pat Quinn), a couple of sponsors, and mostly by listener donations through Paypal. We do not have the resources to litigate; if a SOPA complaint is filed against us it is simply the end of our podcasts and our articles.

And we are not alone. The advent of the “blogger” has created thousands of news and entertainment sites just like mine. The internet is built on small entrepreneurs who start these ventures, and large corporations will have the power to shut all of us down without first having to prove we did anything wrong. This bill could kill our podcasts, and could kill the livelihoods of bloggers across the world.

So what can you do to stop SOPA? Likely, nothing. It’s perhaps the cynical answer, but it seems that the campaign contributions of media lobbyists matter more than the rights of the American citizen. Unfortunately, I have no answers, and if you do please share them with me. I don’t write this article to rally you to action, or to tell you who to vote for or against. I just hope that by reading this you have been made aware that this bill is dangerous, and truly can kill the internet as we know it. Watch the progression of this bill, and pray it doesn’t pass.